Earth Day Discount

I like free stuff. I bet you do to. So here is a freebie (plus shipping) for you. Click on the image above to go to their website. The coupon code is EARTH09. I just tried it and its still working. I love the Butter London polish. I have posted about it before when I was loving their Take Me to Bed Red color.

San Francisco in an Afternoon

San Francisco is known for being a very romantic city. Despite the fact that the two times I’ve visited have been alone and one of the two was during absolutely horrid, bitter cold March weather, the reasons for this reputation are clear. First of all, San Francisco, despite its hills is a very walking friendly city. Its neighborhoods are perfect for spending hours wandering around, looking at the architecture, wandering through the shops, and enjoying the views, in other words perfect for a walk together. While the city has a lot of shopping, particularly in the Union Square area which is eminently accessible to tourists, being on both the cable car, bus line and metro line, it seems almost a crime to be indoors when there is so much wandering to do, a fact that would be sure to keep my husband happy as I would never drag him around asking for his opinion in San Francisco.

Even on your own, San Francisco still has a lot to offer. In just 4 hours of wandering I was able to hit a lot of the touristy highlights. My hotel was the Hilton at Fisherman’s Wharf. I wouldn’t recommend it for a good nights rest as the windows weren’t glazed to keep out the noise of the nightlife and the rooms weren’t particularly luxurious, but the location can’t be beat, a mere block from the wharf and right next to one of the cable car lines. This meant that after my meeting and business lunch I was able to switch into my jeans and t-shirt and stroll right over to the waterfront. It will never be like San Diego where strolling along with your bare feet enjoying the feel of the sand is more de rigour, but it is beautiful all the same.

The wharf is home to the sea lions at the pier, the Aquarium of the Bay (with its clear underwater tunnels), great views of the Golden Gate Bridge and Alcatraz, a famous carousel and tons of shopping and great seafood restaurants. If I’d had kids with me I could have easily spent a day at the wharf, it felt like the state fair, people wandering around getting too much sun on their noses and eating food on sticks as they strolled. I skipped an actual visit inside the Aquarium (there’s always next time) and hopped on the cable car near the Hilton. The prices have gone up since the last time I was here with a one way ride costing $5.00 and a day pass $11.00. Being the sucker that I am I bought a day pass and only had 2 rides. There really aren’t enough routes to justify the day pass.

The cable car takes you through downtown, including Chinatown, and drops you off right at Union Square, shopping central for San Francisco. The square is bordered by Powell, Post, Geary, and Stockton streets. It is home to typical department stores and luxury stores and haute couture shops. With the value of the dollar what it is and the winter weight not yet gone, I was in no mood to splurge, so I pressed on passing the Moscone conference center which was hosting the American Diabetes Association meeting and the setting up for the Apple WWDC which happened today. I wish I could have been there. That block was nerd central.
After a quick stop off for a soda and a sit to watch the Carousel at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts I turned to reach the Science Museum. I was disappointed to learn that it is closed until fall 2008 for renovations. With not enough time to do the Museum of Modern Art justice before it closed, it was back to Union Square, back on the trolley and on to Ghirardelli Square which is at the other end of Fisherman’s Wharf from where I started, between Beach and Larkin streets. You can stop in their store and get free samples (chocolate square with peanut butter inside, heaven) and take a tour to see how the chocolate used to be made when their factory was in operation. It also the home of McCormick & Cavoletto’s, my restaurant for the night. (Ghirardelli Square open Mon-Sat 10a-9pm, Sun. 10a-6p)

This restaurant boasts some of the best views of the bay and wharf around, but apparently if you don’t get a reservation and are a walk-in party of 7, you get put in the back room and can’t enjoy them. Oh well, the food was good and the cocktail menu was inventive and fun. Once I saw Pisco Sour on the menu, I flashed back to memories of my trip to Chile and knew what I was going to order, but I kept reading. There were the typical Cosmopolitans of course, but there were also other more original cocktails on their “modern cocktails” list like white grape and basil which sounded intriguing. One of my colleagues got this later drink and it was delightfully refreshing, summery and tasty. (yeah, I snitched)

There was a lot more of San Francisco that I didn’t see in my half day tour. There is a Cable Car museum, Wax Museum, the famous Museum of Modern Art, and tons of boutiques ripe for some retail therapy. But, on a perfect sunny day, with no fog, no wind and not too hot temperatures, it seemed a shame not to simply walk the city, take in the sights and get sun on my nose. Even the locals were impressed and out in droves.

My previous adventure to San Francisco showed me the second most visited tourist site, next to Golden Gate Bridge, Chinatown. I have vivid memories of a rat over a foot long (including tail) running up the wall of my Chinese restaurant and half of my dinner party screaming and running out, leaving our poor hosts with 30 people worth of food prepared and only 15 to eat it. The shopping was fun, even if I had no use for dishes, Buddhas, or other Chinese chotchkees. Chinatown is definitely worth a visit if you have a longer stay.

Everything I saw on this trip was free. No need to pay $15.00 to go over to Alcatraz, I have a great photo from the pier and I’ve seen the History Channel special so I don’t need to visit. The cable car took me past the famous street with its curly cue turns which my transportation engineer husband would loathe (sit on the right hand side going down the hill or the left hand side going up to get a good view). You can have a perfectly great day in SF without spending a dime, just walking around. Just bring your sunscreen. I still need to visit the SF MOMA (Museum of Modern Art), go up to the top of the Coit Tower for the view, and actually ride one of the carousels with my sweetie before taking him out for some great seafood, so I’ll be back.

Screaming Down the Bunny Hill

After reading all of the other holiday and New Years posts of the other bloggers I read, I realized that I haven't posted anything myself since before Christmas. We kept out Christmas low-key this year spending more effort into preparing Christmas dinner than in shopping. Little kids are more fun to shop for and watch their sheer delight. We don't have kids yet, so low key was great. All was as it should be. We went to Christmas Eve service as a family and as the bells tolled midnight we walked out over the glaciated parking lot to our cars, the crispness and newness of the evening air making the day seem more special. On Christmas day we had the traditional coffee cake and opened presents. After last year when I got my iPod and hubby received a very nice GPS among a big pile of other things we kept things much more simple this year. Fore awhile I was tempted to run out and grab a few more things just to make the pile under the tree larger and more exciting, but in the end our carefully thought out presents were far more meaningful. I got a few cds from his parents which I have wanted for awhile and my present from hubby was a pair of wonderful Ugg slippers which are just perfect.

After Christmas we hopped a flight down to my parent's house in Palmer. My brother is a cadet at West Point and invited us to the All Academies ball for all of the family and friends of cadets and midshipmen and the 5 service academies. It is always a bunch of mixed emotions when I see him and hubby dressed up to the 9s in their uniforms. They look so incredibly handsome and I am so proud of them, but sad at the same time. What really choked me up was the table for 1, which symbolizes the absent or killed soldiers who aren't with us for the occasion. The military has a lot of ceremonies and this one is present at every formal military ball. The photo of the soldier at the table for one was my cousin. I burst into tears when I saw it. Apparently his photo was taken for use in a Nascar add and they are still using it! The organizers were sent a copy of the poster by a recruiter, trimmed it down and edited it and used that as their photo. It is a good photo of him. Good thing I wore waterproof mascara. It's also a good thing we had our photo taken before that, because I still managed to wipe off and streak most of my foundation after I finished tearing up. It is our first family photo since I have been married, and I've been married 3 years now. For one reason or another one of us was always missing, so it was nice to have us all eight of us together and all dressed up.

The day after the ball my family decided they wanted to go skiing. Now falling is like my #1 fear so I was rather reluctant to go, but hubby decided he wanted to. Alaska has a really nice ski resort called Alyeska which is about an hour away from Anchorage. It is relatively unknown to the outside, mostly because it is almost all black diamond and double black diamond skiing with very little beginner or intermediate level slopes. It also doesn't have the typical shopping and restaurants surrounding the resort so it is mostly for serious skiers.

The year after I started college, the rest of my family got into skiing in a big way. Even my littlest sister who is 10 can ski quite well and all of the rest of my siblings could be ski instructors if they wanted to. So with great trepidation I let my little sister take me up the smallest lift. I signalled the guy in the booth to slow down the lift as we approached the top, which he obligingly did, assuming that I was signaling for the little kid sitting next to me, when in reality I was worried I would fall on my backside and have the next 4 chairs worth of people jumping over or on top of me. I made it off of the lift ok, bribing my sister with the promise of a Popsicle not to tell the rest of the family that I made the lift slow down. I shouldn't have bothered trying to save my dignity. I promptly screamed my head off and went careening into the nearest ditch. Skiing lesson #1, how to stand up after you've fallen down. This took approximately 20 minutes the first time. Ultimately it took, hubby and both of my sisters to get me down the easiest hill with a proper lift. An hour later I stumbled into the lodge sore and grumpy. My Mom said she could hear me all the way down. I was definitely the biggest baby on the mountain and ready to give up for the day.

Hubby in his infinite wisdom went and got me a lesson. Rather than starting on the easiest regular hill of the mountain my lesson started on the bunny hill. By the end of my two hour lesson I was the queen of the bunny hill. I could go, slow down, stop and turn. My confidence soared when my ski instructor pronounced me to be the best in my class of 5 and ready to progress to level 3. Level 3 is the hill which I almost killed myself going down in the morning so I was pleased. Teaching a fully grown adult to ski is like teaching them to swim. I know this from experience because I used to give adult swim lessons. Convincing a fully grown adult to put their face in water is like telling them they should jump out of a perfectly good airplane. It should not be done by a friend or family member or any frustration will come out as anger. It must be done by a 3rd party to get around the authority issue. Still it was hard for me to get over my fear of falling and realize that snow is for the most part a soft object or as my transportation engineer husband says, a good crash attenuator. He tried to make me feel better by pointing out that in winter less traffic accidents are fatalities because the snow acts as a cushion crash attenuator and its the same thing with skiing. Somehow his comments didn't help, but Angel my ski bum Latino ski instructor with his loud praise and infinite patience got me doing the impossible, enjoying skiing. It was the best $35.00 my husband has spent in a long time getting me that lesson. It will probably be awhile before I ski again, but I will hopefully remember enough to conquer the hill that had me screaming when next we meet.

Oh and for the person who asked, my LSAT score this time around was the exact same as last time. Very dissapointing. Actually I improved a lot in all categories except games, which I didn't finish.

Biodegradable laptop

Combining two of my favorite things, cool tech gear and environmentalism has historically been almost impossible. It has taken a lot of effort to make sure that every piece of technology my family casts off is reused or recycled and not taken to the landfill. We recycle our batteries and laptops, freecycle our monitors and printers and generally try not to upgrade as soon as we get the itch for something new. When it finally comes time to buy my *gasp* 2nd cell phone ever, we'll also take advantage of our ability to donate our old ones. But here is a product that won't force me into feeling guilt when it meets its inevitable doom of obsolescence, a biodegradable laptop made from plastic from cornstarch rather than petroleum. It will go away over the course of a few months in the landfill while real plastic will take decades. I'll still have to do something about it's guts, but at least the chassis will be gone. I really hope we start to see more items like this in the US. We throw away millions of tons of technology every year.

Earth Day 2007 Pics

I don't know if anybody cares, but I've finally got around to downloading the pictures off of the camera from back in April when we went on the Spring migration canoeing trip. Our Clear Water canoe trip out near Delta, Alaska was the start of our plan to be more active and outdoorsy together. I'll have to post on our backpacking trip soon, once I've finished recovering. You can see how close we were to the moose. It was an awesome trip.

New Tent

Here is our new tent. It took us 3 weeks to decide on and visits to 5 different stores. Ultimately it came down to this one as it met all of our criteria. I wanted to be able to watch the stars if we were ever somewhere warm and dry enough to leave the rain fly off. We wanted two doors so we wouldn't have to disturb one another if nature called and plenty of room in the tent to play cards if we get weathered in. Not thrilled with the color, but as I learned when I bought my sleeping bag, color doesn't matter as much as design when it comes to camping equipment. Buy what works for you. The tent is an Asp 2 if anybody is curious. I'll report back later on how it works out. We're going backpacking for the first time this weekend.

3 Rainbows

Yesterday was our 3rd wedding anniversary. After work we took our bikes and rode to the botanical gardens, something we've been meaning to visit ever since we were dating. We then rode to the sports store and bought a tent. Phase 3 of our transformation of me into an outdoorsy person is a two day one night backpacking and camping trip. Phase 1 (canoeing) and Phase 2 (day hiking) went pretty well, so we'll hope for the best. I have surprised myself by enjoying all of our outdoorsy time together so far. A day and night away with no facilities hopefully won't strain things too much. After the tent buying we rode home, cleaned up and went out to dinner. I ordered the same food as we had served at our rehearsal dinner and we talked as we watched the river flow by. All in all it wasn't a night on the town champagne and roses kind of anniversary, but it was very us and very good. We saw saw one rainbow on our bike ride, one in the garden and another on the drive home from dinner. Three rainbows for our third anniversary, a very good sign.

Information Fasting

TechChris is going on an information diet. This made me realize that without even trying I went on an information fast from last Wednesday to Sunday. While we were on our trip we decided not to bring laptops, not to check our e-mail (even when we had the chance) and only use our cell-phones for emergencies. Ultimately both phones died and we spent a blissful 5 days totally disconnected. When I returned I had 8 actual e-mails that required a response and 64 blog-lines to read. Nothing fell apart, the world kept going and I felt strangely recharged. I did not waste hours of my day watching tv. We did catch a special on the history channel on the history of barbecue technology which was interesting and didn't fry to many brain cells. Instead, I spent time in the outdoors, talking with my husband and enjoying good food and a good book. We should all take information fasts from time to time. In the meantime, take Chris' idea and go on an information diet. You'll be amazed how much more time you have in your day. Hmmm... maybe I'll be able to restart my thwarted Couch to 5k running plan.

Valdez Trip

Whew, that was a lot of driving. Here's our route. But, the trip was beautiful and well worth it.

We went from Fairbanks to Copper Center Lodge on the 4th where we stopped for the night at the historic lodge. Apparently back in the day they created lodges that were about a day's travel apart so that travelers could stop for the night. With the advent of cars and a more developed train system many of these lodges have closed, but those that remain have a lot of historic charm. We stopped there for the night, had dinner and then took a walk together to look at the area and watch some of the locals try to blow themselves up with fireworks.

The next day (5th) we visited the Cooper Center museum, which was basically a small collection of leftover paraphernalia from the gold rush era. The historic photographs and maps were interesting to hubby who is a big history buff. I was content to look at the old miner's cabins and wonder how people had their whole lives year after year in spaces smaller than my first dorm room.

After stopping at The Fishing Widow coffee place for my mocha and hubby's hot cocoa we hit the road again and drove the rest of the way down to Valdez, down through the mountains and past the waterfalls to our hotel. On the way down stopped for a short hike up to Worthington Glacier. After getting into Valdez we stopped at our hotel and then went to lunch at the Valdez classic Mike's Palace. I remember this place from when I was a little girl. My parents would always order the cheese pizza and I would sit at the counter and watch the Italian family make the food. All of the people who worked there were family and during the summer the extended family would come from Italy to work at the restaurant, or that is my recollection. I remember one of the guys that worked there giving me a little bowl of peperoni to put on my cheese pizza. Strange, the memories that stick with you from when you were a kid. Not much has changed, the same family still owns the place and the pizza is still great. I will say though that a large pizza is too large for two people, even when one of them is a 6'2" hungry man who has been driving and hiking all day.

Next we went to see the Valdez Museum which I also remember from my childhood. Actually I remember only one thing from the museum, the fur fish. Until I went back as an adult I believed that the fur fish was real. Alas, like so many childhood fantasies, the fur fish is not real. By reading the caption this is now obvious. In addition to the fur fish the museum also boasts the following: archives, maps, photographs, newspapers, an exhibit on the Pipeline Construction, an exhibit on the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill, an exhibit on the World Extreme Skiing Championships and several exhibits on the gold rush and Valdez as an all-American town up until the Good Friday earthquake wiped it out.

The next morning we took a Stan Stephens cruise through Prince William Sound for a 9.5 hour tour. We saw every type of wildlife advertised on the brochures, except for the mountain goats and bears. All of the white specks that I saw turned out to be snow when viewed through the spotting glasses. Mountain goats are now beasts which have now reached mythical status in my book. All throughout my growing up years in Alaska my Mom would insist that she saw Dall Sheep or Mountain Goats on the mountain, but I can't actually remember ever seeing one. I've seen plenty of them mounted on walls, but until I see one myself I have relegated all Alaskan sheep and goats to mythical status, like unicorns or fur fish.

But, to make up for it we saw 5 humpback whales, 29 baby seals, 107 (before I lost count) sea otters, too many sea lions to count, an eagle's nest, arctic terns, puffins, dall porpoises and so many others. On the drive we also saw moose, eagles and squirrels in addition to lots of beautiful fire weed and other wildflowers. Oh yeah, and the typical nature stuff: mountains, glaciers, forests and the like.The cruise was well worth the money, especially with the 10% off for Alaskan residents.

The rest of the trip was pretty laid back, we drove from Valdez to Palmer to visit my parents, went tent shopping at REI (still haven't found one, although I did get a sleeping bag) and then drove back through Denali Park to Fairbanks on Sunday. A lot of beautiful scenic driving and over 500 songs later on the ipod we arrived safe and sound home to two cats who wanted a lot of attention. Once I upload the rest of the photos on Flickr I'll have to add a slide show. There is a limit to how patient I am in uploading through blogger.

The Best Laid Plans

I got my official acceptance letter from the school on Friday followed by a binder of welcome information on Saturday. Definitely the most information that I've received from any of the schools. I did appreciate the t-shirt from DePaul though. I looked through the paperwork and noticed that I have until July 6th to have my deposit received. Given that the earliest that I could mail it is Monday that is completely impossible. Mail to Alaska, as evidenced by when I received my acceptance letter, takes at least 7-9 days from whenever it is mailed in the states. Same goes the other way. I think I'll call them and ask for an extension, because that is just impossible. I don't want to mail my acceptance until after I've already tried to negotiate my financial aid. That means there is no time for a letter of negotiation. Perhaps an e-mail plea or a phone call so that I can get an immediate sense of whether I will get any aid. I'm sure they won't give me any more aid after I have sent in a deposit.

I also need to decide whether I want to go down early enough that if I want to establish residency for 2L and 3L years I will qualify with enough time in the state. As an Alaskan resident I could probably get a clerkship if I maintain my Alaskan residency until after graduation, but I'd have to pay a bunch more in tuition if I don't become a local resident. Would a clerkship be worth 20k in extra tuition for years 2 and 3?

Hubby waivers between hating the idea of moving and resignedly accepting it. He knows it would be better for me to be busy and being near his family will be better for me than being by myself or in Anchorage with my family. He probably won't be there for too much of school anyway. He is thinking his deployment will be fiscal year '08, which starts in October. But if he doesn't leave until say December, he won't get back until the following December to March time frame in which case I'll be 1/2 way done with school and only have another 1.5 years to go. This makes him feel better about it. It just makes me freak out. He's been my best friend since freshman year of college, even before we were dating. I don't know how I'll handle the stress of law school without him.

Move or no move, either way, we've decided to take advantage of being in Alaska while we can. Even if I'm not in school, this will probably be our last summer together here for awhile if he's off playing Army. For our 3rd wedding anniversary we're taking an early trip. It always turns out that we have holiday leave from work over July 4th weekend so we do something early for our anniversary and save our personal leave for later. So we're going to drive to Valdez, take a cruise to see the whales, glaciers, puffins and other wildlife, go on a hike to see the Bridal Veil Falls and spend a night camping on the Denali highway. It should be a fun trip. Valdez is one of my favorite places in Alaska and it's somewhere that we've never been together. I will enjoy sharing it with him. We'll still go out to dinner together on the actual day of our Anniversary, but this trip will be the main celebration. Enjoying a combination of outdoors, nature, wildlife and a balance of camping and hotels so as to not stress us out too much will be good. It will be an intro to camping as a couple which should be interesting. One night can't hurt too much even if I'm not very outdoorsy.

In preparation for the trip we tried to buy a tent today. We spent an hour and a half in the store today. One of the nice things about going to a local gear shop rather than a big retailer like Outdoorman's Warehouse is the personalized service that you get. We learned more than I ever wanted to know about tents and fabrics and we set up two different models in the store to see wether we liked them. They won't let you leave the store without having set it up. One of the tests of a good tent match is apparently whether it is intuitive enough to be set up correctly without reference to the directions. Hubby being a naturally outdoorsy Eagle Scout took the lead while I dumbly looked on. I helped when I could, but listening to him talk to the salesperson was like listening to a foreign language. I had no idea what they were talking about for the most part and in the end hubby left with a tent on hold to go home and sleep on it. I just think that the blue one with the metallic red poles looks better than the yellow and beige one with the silvery poles, but I'll be glad if he's happy. I don't really care about the tent.

Angel Rocks

For many reasons I went hiking this weekend. The 1st was my promise to hubby to try and become more outdoorsy. To this end he first had me do an outdoors activity where I was sitting down the whole time, so we went canoeing on Earth Day. (photos forthcoming) Now we are are working up the outdoorsy scale by doing a day-hike. The 3.5 mile Angel Rocks hiking path is pretty challenging as it mostly a climb and then a scramble down. I was really wishing that I had hiking boots by the end. On the way down I was really paranoid that I would turn an ankle. But 2 hrs later I was really happy with having spent the time outdoors. The view was great and a light breeze kept the mosquitoes off. The picture to the right is a beaver dam that we passed on the way. The 461 calories burned was just a bonus.

We still need to play around with settings on our new digital camera. The color saturation is off on these photos. The actual view was far greener. Instead these photos look a little washed out. Trust me, the actual view was much better.

Couch to 5k Running Plan

Thanks to Paragon to Pieces for the inspiration. I am going to attempt to join her and do the Couch to 5k Running Plan. I have never been a runner, but I have always admired them. Anybody who puts running down as one of their hobbies has always intimidated me. It is also a very portable hobby. You don't need to use a slimy hotel gym elliptical trainer if you're a runner. Assuming good weather you just pack your shoes and clothes and hit the pavement. A cool way to see a new city and maintain your fitness regimen. With the amount of travelling I do that is ideal.

As much as I love my new bike, I know that I need to do more. I always say that I'm at my winter high this time of year and it's about time that I work on getting back down to my summer low while I still have some of the summer to enjoy fitting into my summer clothes. Wish me luck!

Biking to Work

Hubby rode his bike to work this morning for the first time, adding 6 miles of biking to his exercise routine. Me...I took the car and still got to work late. Very lazy me! But, at least I have a bike now so that I can ride to work when the weather gets a little nicer. It's still a tad chilly for me @ 31F in the mornings. I know, I know, I'll warm up once I get moving. *sigh* But, here is a picture of my beautiful bike. I'll have to do a post later on the process of how it was selected. As usual, it consisted of a thorough and complete survey of all available products maximizing desired qualities and balancing them with costs.

Hardrock Women's Mountain Bike by Specialized

DC Trip Day 1

My airplane reading material. Not sleeping on planes is a pain, but in the time it takes to get from Fairbanks, Alaska to Washington, D.C. you can read the book front to back. It takes exactly that long. I was finishing the last page on final approach.

I remember you DC. I remember metro, reading express in the mornings and walking everywhere. It is no wonder that I always lose weight during my summers as a DC intern. I range about 20 lbs from my winter high weight to my summer low. The summer sunshine reenergizes me and inspires me to be more active. Being a DC intern makes me walk everywhere because I'm too cheap to take cabs or metro. And last year working for the FBI kept me inspired by all of the agents and a free gym in the basement.

Unfortunately the snow earlier this month knocked the cherry blossoms off of the trees early, so I still have yet to see them. I did get to see all of the monuments and the mall on the taxi ride from the airport which was nice. I'm staying with a friend up above U-street in a cozy little condo. Walking to GWU and around GULC and GMU kept me active today. I reaquainted myself with alot of the places I used to walk by everyday, including my apartment from summer 2006 and best of all Jamba Juice. Yummo! I love their rasberry smoothies.

This afternoon I realized that I did not pack a belt to go with my suit so I made my annual spring trek to the Pentagon City mall. This further inspired me to get active for summer as nothing fit! Very depressing. However, when I talked to hubby this evening I was pleased to hear that he needed to make the call quick because he was heading out the door for a run. It will be easier to be active if we're in this together rather than me going it alone. Now that we have bikes we can do more together than just watch DVDs and hang out around the house.

I'll post my law school visit info in a little bit as my laptop battery is almost dead. Pictures coming soon too. Tomorrow is policy orientation and then congressional visits. Now, where is the nearest H&M.

Earth Day 2007

Legal Andrew's recent post: "Get Your Motivation Going With Small Steps" was particularly timely. Now that the sun is finally returning and getting out of bed doesn't feel like being resurrected from the dead anymore, both hubby and I have been itching to be more active. To this end I volunteered to go on the Spring Migration Paddle with my University's outdoor adventures group on Earth Day. My husband loves the outdoors. He is an Eagle Scout and considers trees a mandatory part of the landscape at any future home we may have. So I am trying to humor him and become more outdoorsy. We've been together for 6 years and this is the 1st real outdoor trip we've been on together.

Now for anybody who knows me well, they'll know I'm generally not an outdoorsy person. I blame this on the fact that I came from a family of 7 and camping made for some cheap vacations. Most of things we did together as a family were outdoors, camping, rafting and hiking. Most of these were also less than enjoyable. I am always cold and I much prefer the Ramada to a tent with no air pad. At the age of 12 I would have much rather been left home and allowed to just read all weekend than be dragged out of doors. Before we moved to Alaska I was actually quite outdoorsy, but from the moment I walked off the plane that fall of 1990 it has been a chore to get me outside to do more than walk to the car. It's just too cold, buggy and not fun. Hubby says that we were camping wrong and has made it his mission to show me fun camping. I'm trying to keep an open mind.

So, back to the Spring Migration Paddle. Every year in Alaska the birds come back in the Spring by the thousands. This year I guess they are being lazy birds because we barely saw any. On our 5 hours of canoing we did see 5 moose, a zillion fish, little baby Salmon which were less than 3 inches long and other assorted wildlife. The moose were particularly impressive. 3 of them were wading in the river as we canoed by. They were just out there munching on a branch that was stuck in the river. When we went by they scurried off to shore, but for awhile there they were very VERY close. Scary close. I took a bunch of pictures and I'll have to see how good they are. If I got any good shots I'll post them.

All in all it was a great trip. We got out in the outdoors on Earth Day and it was beautiful. I blogged about going to the Ice Art Competition March 28th which was less than a month ago. We have gone from -40F to 60F, a difference of 100 degrees in less than a month. Wow! We are now inspired to do more things together and develop some more active hobbies. We are looking at buying bikes so that we can commute to work in a more environmentally friendly way and so we can do trips on the weekends.

Bikes are expensive. The last time I bought a bike the big decision was wether I should get the one with a basket or the one with pom-poms on the handles. Now we have disc brakes, shocks, hard tails vs. soft tails and a myriad of other options. Bikes range from $99.99 Walmart specials, which are unrepairable to $700.00 mountain bikes and up and up and up. I am not going to grow again so I don't mind spending a little more on a bike that will last me a long time. And if it is uncomfortable I know I won't use it as much. I am tempted to spend a bit more on something that I will enjoy using because I know that I will use it more. Anybody have a recommendation for a good bike path and trail bike? It needs to work on both gravel and pavement and preferably have a step through frame. I'm still a little girly in my bike needs.